Science & Health
Marijuana And Psychedelics Are ‘Best-Rated’ Drugs For Eating Disorder Symptoms, American Medical Association Study Finds
New research published by the American Medical Association (AMA) finds that marijuana and psychedelics “were among a small set of drugs” that showed promise for improving eating disorders. In fact, psychedelics and marijuana were “the highest rated” by participants in terms of effectively addressing their eating disorder symptoms.
“A striking outcome was the favorable self-reported ratings of psychedelics and cannabis for alleviating [eating disorder] symptoms,” authors wrote of their findings, “eclipsing the ratings of commonly prescribed psychotropics.”
The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Network Open, evaluated a wide range of drugs and their subjective effects on eating disorders, including “caffeine, alcohol, nicotine, prescription psychotropics, psychedelics, ketamine, 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (or ecstasy) [MDMA], stimulants, opioids, and other drugs.”
Researchers looked at survey results from 6,612 people who answered questions about their past-year use of substances and they affected eating disorder (ED) and mental health symptoms.
“Cannabis and psychedelics were highest-rated for improving ED symptoms,” the report says, noting that prescription antidepressants “were rated highly for overall mental health but not for ED symptoms.”
Cannabis, psilocybin and LSD also “rated highly” in terms of overall improvement in mental health.
Alcohol, nicotine and tobacco, meanwhile, were rated by participants as “the most harmful drugs.”
Notably, only a small subset of substances appeared to make eating disorder symptoms better. Most made the symptoms worse.
“Cannabis and psychedelics were among a small set of drugs rated positively for relief of [eating disorder] symptoms.”
“When asked to identify their drug of choice for self-medicating ED symptoms, the most popular drug among respondents was cannabis,” the paper says. “When normalized by the number of users of that drug, the top drug was fluoxetine.”
The nine-author team behind the new study represents institutions including the University of Sydney and New South Wales Health, in Australia, as well as Kings College London in the U.K.
“The findings of this survey study of prescription and nonprescription drug use suggest that cannabis and psychedelics were perceived by survey respondents as efficacious in alleviating their ED symptoms,” authors wrote, “which supports further research in this area.”
“Overall, the best-rated drugs for ED symptoms among respondents were psilocybin, cannabis and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD),” the paper says.
The team also observed that, “interestingly, MDMA and ketamine did not achieve the positive ratings evident with LSD and psilocybin, suggesting that classic psychedelics may possess unique properties in this regard.”
The new report notes that clinical trials are already underway into whether psilocybin is an effective treatment for one eating disorder, anorexia nervosa.
Authors noted that one way cannabis might help minimize symptoms in people with “food-aversive” eating disorders, including anorexia, is by “increasing the hedonic value of food.”
Separate federally funded research published last year explored exactly what happens in the brain after using marijuana that causes the “munchies”—findings authors of that study said could help lead to the development of targeted therapeutics for people with conditions such as anorexia and obesity.
Image element courtesy of Kristie Gianopulos.
